Tying It All Together
Part I: “Pride Goeth Before a Fall…”
January 27, 2009
Proverbs 16:18 states: “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”
In 2006, after years of “ranting and raving” against such varied issues as politics, sports and medicine, I finally sat down and began writing my web log. The “straw that broke the camel’s back,” of course, was 9/11 and the subsequent anal response of our government, including the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq. What struck me the hardest was the secret ingredients in our country’s success: “Freedom,” “Industriousness,” real “Judeo-Christian” ethics, and most of all “sheer blind luck,” the most important ingredient making our insatiable “lust,” our “manifest destiny” attainable. Unfortunately, with the ascension of the “child king” George W. Bush and his “Faith Based” rather than “Intelligence Based” administration, it became immediately obvious that we were headed for unmitigated disaster. My derision at the usual brainless flag wavers was inflamed all the more by weak kneed Democrats falling in line with the adolescent President and his demented advisors. Eventually, my anger could be contained no more- either express it on paper and Web log or explode!
The subject of my “Blog” is not (thankfully) ex-President Junior Bush or Politics or Sports. The real subject is “Stupidity,” unmitigated stupidity in Politics, Sports, Medicine and more than anywhere else, in the American People. Pampered and brainwashed, with virtually no meaningful news media, no objective educational system and a return to remedial religious beliefs, our citizenry, twice, “virtually” elected a bungling, illiterate, ex-drunk, ex-drug addicted, amoral and most of all, a brutally incompetent child to lead our country.
Even Chris Matthews, my favorite news person, lauded the man in his book- a man whose primary campaign in South Carolina consisted of Karl Rove employing phone callers and rally crashers to accuse John McCain of fathering a Nigger baby by a Nigger Prostitute, all while being a homosexual and all because he and his wife had adopted a beautiful Asian girl from Mother Theresa’s orphanage in Bangladesh. Good journalism Chris and all your colleagues- Congratulations!
Then there was the flag waving! All those Democrats- also illiterate, I found, applauding Mr. Bush on his handling of 9/11 instead of asking how the hell he could be so careless. How could he let his buddies make so much money off of airport security by privatizing it and paying the uneducated, untrained personnel minimum wages? How could the FBI not wire tap known Al Qaida agents?
Eighteen Saudi Arabians attacked our country because of our undying affection for one of the most autocratic dictatorships in the world and our response was not to figure out why we were attacked, but to attack Afghanistan!!! The last country that wasted 10 years in Afghanistan, the Soviet Union, went bankrupt! Fortunately, we possessed far more wealth than the Soviets, so we attacked Iraq as well. Now, we too had a shot at achieving the ultimate goal: Bankruptcy!!! Add Bush’s cronies, Cheney and Rumsfeld: Cheney, the Guinness Book of Records holder of the Prize for the most money ever made by privatizing secular government agencies, and Rumsfeld, holder of a similar prize for most money ever made from privatizing military operations. Now, the price to taxpayers for these two useless wars could be multiplied ten-fold to pay all those entrepreneurs, Halliburton, Exxon Mobil, Black Water International, and the other 200,000 or so Bush/Cheney Carpetbaggers.
Bush managed to win against the lackluster Al Gore in 2000, but only due to a confluence of “coincidences.” There was the illegal “butterfly ballot” in Palm Beach, the missing but mandatory recount in all of Florida as well as thousands of disenfranchised voters at the behest of the Florida legislature and at the hands of Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris. Many people, of course, including Mr. Matthews, were appalled that the Democrats would run an associate of that “sinner” Bill Clinton, a man who had enjoyed oral sex in the White House. This was of course, somehow, Gore’s fault, so the media made up little stories about Mr. Gore, that he had claimed that he’d invented the internet, for instance. Meanwhile, they ignored Junior Bush’s and Cheney’s DUI’s as well as their insidious campaign tactics.
In 2004 I witnessed the ultimate confrontation of the nit wits. A battle ensued between the worst of the witless right wing wonders, Junior Bush and a most unbelievable counterpart, champion of the left wing witless wonders: John Kerry. Never before, in the annals of American politics, had two such mentally and verbally challenged contestants vied for the Presidency. What made the contest even more interesting were the personalities behind the two contestants.
In one corner, Karl Rove, even more divisive, cunning and amoral than Lee Atwater. Rove, the engineer of the “Nigger Lover” strategy that had beaten down poor John McCain, was Junior’s “corner man” and fundraiser. In the other corner: naïve, trusting, verbose and conceited Terry McAuliffe, Democratic National Chairman. What would ensue was not a war of words or even ideas, but a tragic comedy of all that is wrong in American politics.
Typically, the Democratic party, in years past, would raise approximately ½ of the “Hard” Campaign Contributions raised by the Republicans. Democrats relied on “soft” contributions- help from the media. This campaign would be different. Under Terry McAuliffe, the Democrats would actually raise slightly more than the Republicans and Mr. McAuliffe would fail to follow the destiny of every dime. Mr. Kerry would also fail to follow every dime.
When asked “why did you not fight the swift boaters- Bush and Cheney never served in defense of this country and you did?” Kerry answered that his campaign people told him not to answer. “Why did you not take Mr. Clinton’s advice and say that gay marriage and abortion are state issues?” “My campaign people told me not to,” was his answer. “Why did you not campaign on issues like jobs and the economy in states like Ohio?” Kerry’s answer: “My campaign people told me to campaign on issues of gay marriage and abortion.”
When confronted on C-Span, Terry McAuliffe claimed that there was 50 million dollars unspent in Ohio, not 18 million as the host had been told. The other 32 million dollars, he said, was unaccounted for. They did not know where it came from or where it went.
Misters Bagala and Carville, unfortunately, were not permitted to participate officially with Kerry’s campaign staff. Mr. Bagala claims he offered to work with them for free. My question, Mr. Rove, is where did the 32 million dollars come from and where did it go to, Kerry campaign advisors? And , advisors, how could you pick Mr. Edwards for Vice Presidential candidacy, the only man in America who could lose a debate to Dick Cheney?
The rest, of course, is history in the making- the virtual bankruptcy of America, the attack on the Constitution, the phenomenal corruption of the justice system and the new Caste system, the Free Money System, Neopsychotics- all built on the one thing that Washington can depend on: the unmitigated chauvinistic stupidity of the American people!
Being Americans does not make us better than other people! It makes us luckier, nothing else! Being a better person takes performance and effort and a concern for other people as well as our own families. Being proud of my forefathers does not automatically make me proud of myself.
Allen Finkelstein, D.O.